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Time Management
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A young physicist asked Albert Einstein for his phone
number. Einstein picked up his university’s phone directo-
ry, located his number, transferred it to a slip of paper,
and then handed it to the scientist.
Bemused, the young man blurted out, “Mr. Einstein, you
don’t know your own phone number?”
To which the great thinker replied, “Why should I clutter
my mind with something that I can so easily look up?”
Most people are constantly juggling all manner of mental
odds and ends. You know you must buy three things at the
store on the way home, but you get there and can recall only
two. You have a nagging feeling that you’re supposed to return
a certain call, then you remember it, too late, the next day.
50% of all you hear or read you’ll forget within one minute. If
you can’t easily re-access the information you need, write it
down—in your organizer, on a full sheet of paper (to file later),
on a checklist, or somewhere else you can access quickly. It
takes much less time to make a written note than to search for
a lost thought.

Time Leak #4: Commuting and Air Travel

If only your office were the only place you worked! But “office”

Maximize Your Memory
Some people remember numbers better than names, while
for others names are easier than numbers. If you really need
to recall something later and have no way to write it down—for
example, the name of someone to whom you’ve just been intro-
duced—it might work to use a mnemonic device to help trigger your
memory later.
How do you remember, for example, that Frank James isn’t James
Frank? One way would be to remember that F comes before J in the
alphabet.That’s a mnemonic device. Another way would be to remem-
ber that Frank James is a forthright person. He’s French (Frank). Or
that he’s not a hotdog named James—“James frank.” Yes, it’s silly—but
if it works for you, that’s what matters.